No flames for miles, but plenty to shoot

Share this:

Homes are covered in smoke from a large grass fire in Solano County as it drifts into Contra Costa County in Bay Point, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The smoke has reached as far as Dublin and Pleasanton. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

It seems every time there’s smoke in the air, like there has been for days now in the Bay Area thanks to a fast-moving fire in Solano County, the cameras come out. Lenses are drawn to the billowing and toxic brew overhead like moths to a, well, you get the idea.

And thanks to the ubiquitous smartphone camera, a well-proportioned puff of smoke is just a sitting duck for a photo, a video, a slo-mo or a pano, take your pick.

But what is it that we’re trying to capture? The grace and grandeur of something so beautiful produced by something so destructive?

Patrick May is an award-winning writer for the Bay Area News Group working with the business desk as a general assignment reporter. Over his 34 years in daily newspapers, he has traveled overseas and around the nation, covering wars and natural disasters, writing both breaking news stories and human-interest features. He has won numerous national and regional writing awards during his years as a reporter, 17 of them spent at the Miami Herald.

More in California News

"I fully support the principles behind Senate Bill 1: to defeat efforts by the president and Congress to undermine vital federal protections that protect clean air, clean water and endangered species," Newsom said in a written statement.

Attorneys for eight drug distributors, pharmacies and retailers facing trial next month for their roles in the opioid crisis want to disqualify the federal judge overseeing their cases, saying he has shown bias in his effort to obtain a multibillion-dollar global settlement.